Warm Up Exercises are essential!
Through my years of taking classes, I’ve had plenty of teachers go over the importance of doing Warm Ups for getting the hand and eye ready to start doing Art, and while I agree that those will help get the mind and body into the zone faster, I’d like to take a moment to advocate for the rest of the body as well.
If you’d like a bit of a read, the artist above does a great job of explaining exercises, why they specific exercises are good and useful, all the important stuff.
If you need a tl;dr, here’s a couple infographics of what I consider to be minimum stretches.
Don’t worry about doing them all, but doing some Warm Ups will help reduce long term damage (like carpal tunnel syndrome). I’ve found that getting in the habit of stretching before settling down to try to do art also gets my mind “in the zone” faster.
Also, keep the 20-20-20 rule of thumb in mind for break schedule (especially when you’re working digitally)! Every 20 minutes, focus your eyes on something 20 feet away, for 20 seconds.
Reduces eye strain and headaches!
Your back will probably thank you in the long term if you can also have a little walk around and stretch during those breaks, but at least give your eyes a rest. Easy to get back massages, harder to get eye massages! 😉
Keep Creating!
-Archer
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